My journey through life with boys, our real food adventure, and finding joy in the mundane.

Menu

Tag Archives: food choices

Happy Fall! This season is my favorite. I love the crispness, the soups, the colors and all things pumpkin. Watch for pumpkin recipes in abundance in the weeks to come.

I was able to follow last week’s menu well, which reduced stress. I did find that some meals I really enjoyed, while others we simply eaten to give my body nourishment. While I planned for dinner, I struggled to find things that would satisfy for lunch and snacks. I need to do a bit more prep in the evenings to have grabbables.

Last week’s menu in review:

I really enjoyed the chicken, bacon asparagus salad, and the mexican chicken chowder. The scallop recipe I put on the menu last week is a super easy staple that I LOVE. To my dismay, my husband admitted to not really liking the flavor combo, and requested that it not get much play in the future menus. (Insert: SHOCKED FACE!!!) The only meal I did not enjoy was the balsamic beef. It may have been the cut of beef that I used, but something about the fatty cut and the flavor of the sauce did not work well. I am still trying to choke down the left overs. 😦

Yummy Mexican Chicken chowder soup!

In an attempt to have some breakfast and lunch options for the week, I chopped some russet and sweet potatoes and fried them up in the same skillet I used to cook some chopped bacon. I reunited the bacon and the potatoes on a few different occasions, and topped with a runny fried egg. So satisfying.

Scallops, pork tenderloin, beef tacos and the shrimp with zucchini noodles were ALL amazing dinners. I thought for sure the zucchini noodles were going to be gross since they looked like slop, but they were SO good!

The last highlight for the week was actually a rare treat! My sweet friend found a recipe for almond butter protein balls. I snacked on them all week!

Here is the menu for this week:

Monday: Chicken thighs stuffed with avocado and cheese, then wrapped in bacon, (inspired by this recipe) with roasted garlic butter asparagus.

Tuesday: Turkey and black bean burgers (using almond flour instead of breadcrumbs) with a garden salad. Dave will have his on a bun, and I’ll just fork mine. 🙂

Wednesday: Planning to give this zucchini lasagna a go. I will use a sugar free pasta sauce, and will add some ground beef.

Saturday: Asparagus with prosciutto and egg. This might sound gross, but Dave and I LOVE this meal. We do not go to all of the trouble in the recipe. We simply steam the asparagus, frizzle the proscuitto and fry an egg to break over the asparagus. You have to try it.

Sunday: Since we did not get a chance to have these on a previous menu, we will try Fish tacos. I will have these in lettuce wraps instead of on a tortilla. Here is a pic of what they looked like the last time I made them. Cannot wait!!!

Lunches were mostly leftovers thrown into a salad, or a refrig scrounge that made a great meal as a whole. (Brie on approved crackers, fruit, prosciutto, raw veggies)

Dinners were in flux a bit as we had some last minute plans. We also had more food than was needed which allowed for a leftover night. Fajitas, salmon, and chicken/avocado burgers were amazing! I moved the chicken quinoa to tonight, skipped the fish tacos and curry stew, and then had an impromptu dinner at my parent’s house for the 4th. I brought some pastured rib-eyes and chicken thighs to bbq, along with a salad and watermelon. SO good.

I was able to resist treats and wine which might mean that my tastes are changing a bit. We shall see if I dive into a tub of cookie dough once this detox is complete. 🙂

Saturday: Whole chicken will be cooked to supply chicken for a few meals/lunches. The first one will be a Strawberry chicken salad with a strawberry vinaigrette that is also in the recipe. (Can.not.wait to make this y’all)

Sunday: Chicken salad with the remains of the whole chicken, plain yogurt, a touch of dijon, salt/pepper, sliced grapes, sliced apples and almonds. I will have mine in a lettuce wrap and Dave will most likely choose a sandwich.

We took a trip to the pumpkin patch today over by the coast. The air was crisp, and being surrounded by pumpkins made me feel all happy and content. Pretty sure I have mentioned before, but I sure do love fall.

The boys had SO much fun running around, and taking a ride on the train. We brought our new wagon for two that Trevor’s Mimi got him for his birthday. It has a small caboose that hitches on behind, and it was just what we needed to pull around our pumpkins.

The big winner from last week was the chipotle chicken sweet potatoes. Yum. Knowing Dave is not a sweet potato fanatic, I made his on regular potatoes. Both of them turned out delicious, and they were really easy to make too! The boys ate the innards for lunch the following day.

Tuesday: Quinoa stuffed acorn squash inspired by a recipe inthis post. Side story here. I accidentally neglected my CSA customization last week, and an acorn squash was in my box. Hmmm. Never in my life… This could be the hot mess of the week/month/ever.

It has been so very nice to have a few days off, and to have Dave home. We went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum, enjoyed a Fourth of July parade, and took turns sleeping in. SLEEPING IN! Despite the few relaxing days, I have neglected food shopping and bulk cooking. Oy!

While I put together a menu for dinner each week, there is so much more planning and cooking that we do every week. Breakfast, lunch, snacks and all of the prep that is needed for each nightly meal. In addition, we are still working on Trevor’s limited palate. He does eat real food, but we cycle through the same 10 or so items that he will gladly swallow. So…cooking for him adds to the to do list. Thank goodness Lucas will eat anything. Then when he is done, he will eat what is left on Trevor’s plate.

So, taking a few days off from food duties, leads to Dave standing in front of an open fridge/cabinet in search of something to eat for lunch or snacks. It is time to get cracking. Tomorrow is going to be a cook/prep/freeze ahead day.

For this week’s menu, I am doing a week of repeats. These are all getting made again because they were a hit in a past menu. Some of my very faves will not be highlighted simply because I will not have ingredients. The items I picked can either help me stock my freezer (chili), or will be easily made with much of what I have on hand. I am excited!

Sunday: Chili and cornbread. For the chili, I leave out the sugar, bacon bits, hotsauce, and corn chips. I use one whole beer. Cornbread recipe is modified to use whole corn meal (that I will grind in my Vitamix from organic popcorn!!!), whole wheat flour (ground in the Vitamix from whole wheat berries!), olive oil instead of veg, no sugar, and a bit more honey. This meal usually does a really good job of stocking the freezer.

Monday: Left over potato soup (on last week’s menu) and a small salad.

Tuesday: Chicken pot pie I plan to make this interesting by not using any crust, and instead covering the top of the filling with whole wheat biscuit dough that will be dropped on top prior to cooking. I tried this the last time, and it was AMAZING!!! I will post pics of the process.

Wednesday: Lemon Butter Salmon, and steamed broccoli. Plan to add some garlic to the salmon prior to baking.

Thursday: Spring quinoa salad. Just plain delish! Naturally there would have to be a quinoa dish right?!?!

Last week I promised pictures of my sweet little garden project. Oh how it has grown! Today I added four types of lettuce and two types of kale. I had to move the peppers to the front too because the monster zucchini and cucumber plants were trying to swallow them.

Before I wrap up, I have a request. If anyone out there has a favorite real food recipe, please post a link to it in a comment. Or, even if it is not made with real food ingredients, but it is a favorite, I might be able to modify it by swapping a few things out. PLEASE send me some inspiration!

The last few days have been HOT in the bay area. The kind of hot that makes everything a chore.

Like most people in the area, we do not have AC at home. HOT + no AC in the house = zero desire to cook. Zero. Like, I have not even turned on the oven since the middle of last week.

On Friday night, I attempted my first batch of home made ice cream. I was inspired by this post, but did not have any strawberries, or heavy cream on hand. I did have frozen blueberries and half and half though, and that was going to have to be close enough. I mixed up the ingredients, and then pulled out the ice cream maker base out of the freezer. Just an FYI…it is ill-advised to attempt ice cream when it is 92 degrees INSIDE your house. So Friday night’s attempt failed because the frozen container did not stay cold enough, and we had to give it another go in the morning. The subsequent attempt was a success.

YAY for ice cream on a HOT day!

It tastes amazing, though next time I will reduce the amount of both the vanilla and honey. Next up later today, berry yogurt pops!

My menu this week will contain very little that requires the oven. Here is what is in the plan.

Right. It is Tuesday. Sickness has taken over my house, and consumed several boxes of tissue. With illness comes a SLOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWW down of all activity. Including the posting of this week’s menu.

Before I get to the menu, I have to share some excitement over our tiny little garden. Saturday I loaded Trevor into my dad’s truck to go get the dirt from a local garden supply place. He was SO excited, and was talking the whole way there and back about “Papa’s white truck.” He eyes were full of wonder as the dirt was loaded into the truck by some huge yellow front-loader machine. Really glad I took him along with me.

We got home with the soil, and Dave brought load after load back to the raised bed. Trevor was right there with Dave the entire time. Cutest thing ever.

Of note, some of the plants will need to be moved. I guess I underestimated the needed space for several of the items planted. Joy.

Last quick update. It is almost blackberry season!!! My neighbor has a bush that is jumanji-ish, and reaches over the fence into our yard. Plucking these gems will be the highlight of my summer fruit bounty!

Onto what we are eating this week:

Monday: This is our use it up day, so we scrounged for leftovers, and it worked out well. Dave actually tried to finish off the Mac and cheese from last week. I did not touch it though, because it was gross. Like, a waste of pasta gross. Cannot seem to get the ratio of pasta to sauce right, and it always turns out a sticky mess.

Tuesday: Tonight we are eating shepherd’s pie. Not normally something I like, but Dave is a huge fan. It was a Father’s Day request, so I am going to give it a go. I am counting on being amazed.

Friday: Steak Fajitas. These were such a hit last time, that we are making them again! Planning to make fresh corn tortillas too. YUM!

Saturday: Brinner night, so it will either be whole wheat waffles, or pancakes. Whatever I feel I can manage.

Starting next week, my menus will go Sunday-Saturday. This will make it easier to shop on the weekends, and also my menu app on my iPhone uses Sunday-Saturday, so it was getting weird. Technology…rules my life I tell you.